New Kitchen Crew

I am soooo backed up on my posting. I have two test kitchen recipes and sets of photos to share from back in October and I just haven't found the time to post them. But I swear it's not my fault.

It's all her fault!!

That's right. We got a puppy! Life was just too peaceful so we had to go and stir things up again. Meet Ginger. By now, she is almost 12 weeks old and she is a cross between a beagle and a lab. She was named for her ginger brown colors and, as a nice coincidence, Matt's favorite soda, Ginger Ale. She has taken all my attention for the past three weeks. She's currently a little under the weather, having just spent her first overnight at the vet for an upset belly, among other things. But she is home now and doing well. We just created a penned in area for her around the kitchen so she can hang out with us while we cook. Although, for a scent hound, I'm sure that can be torturous. Too many smells and no way to climb over the gate to investigate them. I pray she doesn't get taller too quickly for I know she will be able to clear that gate with one jump in no time.

What you've been missing

Here's a couple that I've been meaning to post. Between the puppy drama and Matt and I both coming down with the flu, there was just no time or energy for writing. Hopefully the worst is getting behind us and life will return to normal.

Southwestern Shepherd's Pie

Okay, so it doesn't photograph well, but mushy mish mashy comfort food recipes like this rarely do. It's the taste and combination of flavors that's important. I found this one on epicurious.com when looking for menu items for our comfort food-themed housewarming party. It's easy, delicious and very flexible for adding your own modifications.

Our changes: We nixed the jalapenos and since Dad doesn't care for sweet potatoes, we made it with Yukon Gold mashed instead. We also added the entire 6 oz can of corn, instead of just a 1/2 cup and almost the entire can of black beans. For a big finish, we sprinkled the top of the mashed potatoes with shredded Mexican Cheese and upped the oven to broil during the last few minutes to get it nice and melty.


What we'd do different: Perhaps the jalapenos would have added just a little more needed heat. Everything blended together really well, but tasted even better after a sprinkle of black pepper.

Pizza Bianca
with Chicken, Caramelized Onions and Fontina

Who doesn't love pizza, but sometimes you need a detour from the norm. This recipe is the answer. A white pie topped with tons of sweet onions and chicken. Again another very flexible recipe to suit your own tastes and what you happen have in the kitchen at the time. The recipe calls for a ready-made store bought crust, but we used a refrigerated dough and rolled it out ourselves. We also used some leftover chicken breast that Dad had in the fridge instead of buying a rotisserie chicken (though I'm sure it would have been good that way, too.) We used dried thyme instead of fresh, but I would warn here to go easy with it. Just a pinch was very pungent and ran the risk of overpowering the flavor.

The key here is the onions. Make sure that you slice them thin enough and cook them long enough so that they are soft. Finally, we threw in a few chopped pieces of red and green pepper, just for color.

I suppose you could use mozzarella cheese for this white pie instead of spending the money on a block of fontina, but there's something about the way that particular cheese melts with the softened onions that goes so great together.

Up close and personal with the meltiness.

Here's the recipe, scanned from a past issue of Relish Magazine. I included the link above but sometimes the web site goes on the fritz. Enjoy!

Test Kitchen #31: Danish

Holy Humongous Danish!

It has occurred to me that we've been doing a lot of baking in the past few test kitchens and after this week's bout with Danish, I'll be glad when we head back to savory cooking next week. Baking has never been one of my favorites. It takes too much patience and exact measuring. But it usually yields great rewards and sweet treats so I do my best to muster up my patience and dive in.

With the danish, it could have been the measuring or the waiting (or both) that led to the struggle. We started out with this recipe from allrecipes.com, which was supposed to yield 36 danishes. I had originally suggested we half the recipe thinking that we certainly did not need that many danishes hanging around the house. But Dad has adopted the familiar battle cry from both Matt and his brother Bob, "Go Big or Go Home!"

In the end, it was good that we didn't half the recipe. Something happened along the way between the rising and the baking of the dough, but these suckers wouldn't stop growing. Perhaps we added in too much yeast but I measured it twice to be sure. Anyway, what was supposed to be 36 ended up being about 12, with a few being some of THE most enormous danishes I had ever seen.

They started out like this:

And ended up like this!
(I could only fit about three on a standard sized dinner plate)

We filled them with apple or raspberry pie filling, but because of all the butter mixed inside the dough, some of them were too slippery to pinch closed. Many of them busted open inside the oven, exposing the filling.

The saving grace was drizzling them with a quick icing made from milk and confectioner's sugar. Everything can be saved with icing. Matt worked from home that day and was around to help us with the taste testing. Albeit a little funny-looking, they were sweet and flaky. Not a total flop, but I'm still ready for next week: A white pizza pie with caramelized onions and chicken!

Test Kitchen #30: Ultimate Cinnamon Buns

HAPPY 30TH RECIPE!

Boy, did that sneak up on us! After the moving drama and attempts at settling in, I didn't realize til this moment that our daring stab at making the Ultimate Cinnamon Bun would also be our 30th recipe. Wheww! Where did all those calories go?

Inspired by another episode of America's Test Kitchen, Dad was enraptured with their Ultimate Cinnamon Buns described as "unapologetically large." The pursuit of the recipe for these sinful treats proved a bit of a challenge. In the past, Dad has been able to find any of the ATK recipes he saw on TV on their web site. But this recipe, could only be located on the super secret "members only" (fork over $14.95) section of the web site. Oh yes, it's that good that they're lockin' that stuff up tight! So after signing up and entering in his credit card number, then realizing he signed up for the wrong membership, emailing the company to cancel his order, locating the right web page and joining the correct membership, Dad finally retrieved the coveted recipe.

They start out this big...

...and end up this BIG!

Being that he had to pay to get this recipe, I'm sure that means that the ATK people would be more than slightly miffed if I posted it here for all to get for free, so unfortunately, to protect the innocent I cannot post the recipe we used. (But if you happen bump into me in the grocery store and we get to chatting about any sweet baked goods and I just happen to mention some ingredients and maybe a few steps and you just happen to figure it out on your own... )

But who likes to read anyway! Let's just spend the rest of the this post staring at the pics or, as my friend Lisa puts it, trying not to lick the screen.

A guard dog hard at work.
K.C. may be blind, but the nose knows when something's in the oven.

Test Kitchen #29: Pasta Fagioli

This week marked the christening of our very own kitchen in our new home. That's right! No more tiny 600 square foot apartment for us. We now have over 1900 square feet to spread our junk around in. (And I'm sure if you ask our wonderful friends who helped us move, they would attest to our amazing ability to cram so much stuff into such a small apartment. Although they might use less pretty words. We love you, we thank you and we're sorry!)

After the stress of the move was over, Matt, like he always does after big events in our life, came down with a cold. As late September brought in the chilly signs of fall, I decided we needed some warm comfort food. That morning I spent a few minutes looking up Pasta Fagioli recipes online and sent three that looked interesting over to Dad. Among them were two from allrecipes.com and one from foodnetwork.com by Giada De Laurentiis. Without hesitation, Dad's choice was clear.

Dad: "Ooo.. Giada. Let's do that one!"

Me: "Yeah, she's the one from Food Network with all the teeth." (I swear, that woman has about 87 teeth in her mouth. It's unnatural.)

Dad: "That's not all she's got."

Good Lord. Clearly my Dad is taken in easily by the eye candy.

Still sore from helping us move, Dad hobbled over to our new house and we got started on a double recipe of Pasta Fagioli. We did a few things differently than the original recipe. I wanted to use ditalini pasta instead of elbow macaroni. It's has a little more of a traditional look based on other soups I've had in Italian restaurants. We also did not have a cheescloth to make a sachet of the herbs, so Dad crushed up the rosemary as fine as he could, we used a little ground thyme and I tossed in the bay leaves loose, making sure to fish them out with a slotted spoon before serving. I also like white cannellini beans in my soup, so we got a little creative and split the ingredients, using two cans of white and two cans of red.

There was an Italian take-out place that used to sell the best Pasta Fagioli. Back before my freelance days, I spent many late nights in the office with a cup of that great soup to keep me company. There was something about the broth that was so good, sorta creamy and full of flavor, but I just couldn't put my finger how to get it that way. This recipe may have revealed the secret. Half way through the cooking process, you remove 2 cups of the bean and broth mixture, puree it in a blender, and return it to the pot to mix with the soup. In another slight variation, we also added one can of diced tomatoes to the blender, to add a little color and a slight tomato flavor. This extra step thickened the broth just enough, somewhere between watery broth and thick chowder. I use cannellini beans when I make tomato sauce from scratch and I think I may try this blending method to see what happens.

For me, it's rare for a recipe to come out so close to a good old memory. Your imagination always tastes better than real life. This is an automatic favorite and comfort food keeper.


Here's our recipe with the variations we did. For the original Giada recipe, see here.

Pasta Fagioli
Based On a Recipe by Giada De Laurentiis
Makes about 12 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of ground thyme
  
• 1 teaspoon of ground rosemary
  
• 2 bay leaf
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoon butter
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 6 ounces pancetta, chopped
• 4 teaspoons minced garlic (About 6 cloves)
  
• 11.5 cups low-sodium, fat-free chicken broth (About 96 oz.)
  
• 2 (14.5-ounce) cans red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 (14.5-ounce) cans white cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 12 oz of ditalini pasta (A little less the a whole box)
  
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Pinch red pepper flakes, optional
• 2/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Directions:

1. Heat 2 tablespoon olive oil and butter in a heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, pancetta, and garlic and saute until the onion is tender, about 3 minutes. Add the broth, beans, and herbs.

2. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat, then decrease the heat to medium and simmer until the vegetables are very tender, about 10 minutes. Remove the bay leaves with a slotted soup.

3. Puree 2 cups of the bean mixture in a blender until smooth*. Before putting the puree back into the soup, add the dry pasta and boil with the lid on until it is tender but still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes.

4. Return the puree to the remaining soup in the saucepan and stir well. Season the soup with ground black pepper and red pepper flakes.

5. Ladle the soup into bowls. Sprinkle with some fresh grated Parmesan just before serving.

*When blending hot liquids: Remove liquid from the heat and allow to cool for at least 5 minutes. Transfer liquid to a blender or food processor and fill it no more than halfway. If using a blender, release one corner of the lid. This prevents the vacuum effect that creates heat explosions. Place a towel over the top of the machine, pulse a few times then process on high speed until smooth.

Test Kitchen #28: Soft Baked Pretzels

After last week's foray into bread making, a little brainstorming lead us to google in search of a pretzel recipe. Dad loves pretzels and I'm huge fan of all snacks salty, so I was really excited about this one. I was also relieved to find that after spending 4.5 hours baking Challah last week, the pretzel recipe we found was only going to take about 2.5.


In the interest of brevity, I'll get to the highlights and so you can spend more time drooling over the pictures.

Verdict: AWESOME and so much fun! If you like warm, soft baked pretzels, I highly recommend you try this recipe. The recipe makes 12 pretzels, but we doubled it to make 24. If you've never done this before, I'd go with more because you'll need the practice when it comes to rolling out and forming the pretzel shapes. The biggest challenge is boiling the formed pretzel doughs just before baking. Although only in the water for a minute each, they tend to get a little slippery when you're trying to get them out.

We made three different kinds: Traditional kosher salt, sprinkled Parmesan cheese and a few with a dusting of cinnamon sugar. The cheese on the pretzels came out great and fused the little holes together making a pretzel roll. After they were all done, we picked the biggest ones, sliced them on the horizontal and made a couple of turkey club sandwiches for our lunch.


Only one low point: The oven temp was way to high for the cinnamon sugar pretzels and, though they smelled delicious, the sugar caramelized leaving very little flavor behind. Dad suggested that next time we try baking them plain, painting them with a thin glaze and dusting them with the cinnamon after they come out of the oven.

We will definitely make these again. As with most baked goods, they're served best hot and fresh out of the oven, but if you have some left over, a quick nuking or short stay in the toaster will bring them back to life. I also learned the hard way to not store them in plastic bags, particularly when they're still warm. They start to sweat in the bag and can get a little soggy.

Test Kitchen #27: Challah & French Toast

This week, Dad decided that we should take another crack at a previously unsuccessful attempt to make Challah bread. Realizing his mistake from the last go around, hopefully, would help us avert tragedy. There's a step in the recipe where you have to cover the bowl of dough with a towel and place in a warm place to rise. Dad has one of those fancy glass flat top stoves, complete with a warming burner, so he had placed the dough on that spot to rise. Unfortunately the spot was a little too warm and dough got a little cooked in the process. But this time we would know better and as they say,"Knowing is half the battle." (And eating is the other and better half!)

So onward in the long journey to make Challah. The time from start to finish: 4.5 hours (with only 30 minutes of active time. Everything else is just waiting). I love how the CT Post calls this recipe an "easy" Challah. 4.5 HOURS!!! How long does the difficult Challah recipe take to make?! A week?! Or perhaps it's simply that the harder recipe is written in the original Hebrew, thereby making the translation a little more challenging.

My friend Jena has shared with me many tales of holiday dinners with family, who apparently become insulted if you don't eat enough. You might think that when the top button pops off your jeans that you've reached your limit for the evening. You'd be wrong. Way wrong. Through these stories, I have learned that the power of Jewish guilt exceeds the power of Catholic guilt mostly because the former's flair for the dramatic. Jena accounts scenes of long dinners at two different family houses, eating a full meal at each stop, pushing away from her plate just in time to hear the cries of, "You didn't eat anything! You didn't like it?!" After spending over four hours with the Challah, I think I finally understand where some of that guilt comes from. If your Jewish mama is going to slave for that many hours in the kitchen, she wants to make sure that EVERYTHING gets eaten.


For Irish/German Catholics, our Challah came out pretty good. Dad and I shared a few slices with Mom when she got home from school, schmeared with just a tad of butter. For dinner, I made some Challah French Toast, something that Matt has been talking about forever. It was awesome! Definitely the best way to have french toast. Not sure I'd go through the 4.5 hour journey to make it, but next time we're out for breakfast at the diner, I'll keep my eye out for it.


Later that night, I sent pictures of the Challah to Jena. She seemed pretty impressed with our little experiment. "That looks great! Although, I haven't made Challah in years. It takes forever!"


Easy Challah (Connecticut Post Newspaper)

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup warm water, about 110° F
2 teaspoons active dry yeast (1/4 oz package)
1/4 cup of honey
3 large whole eggs, divided
3 large egg yolks
1/4 cup vegetable oil, plus more for bowl
1 tablespoon salt
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
1 tablespoon whole milk (or water)


1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the sugar, water and yeast. Mix until the yeast is dissolved. Let sit until foam develops on the surface of the water, about five minutes.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the honey, two of the whole eggs, three egg yolks and the oil. Add to the yeast mixture.

3. Add the salt and flour, then using the mixer's dough hook attachment, mix on low until combined, about 1 minute. Increase speed to medium and continue mixing until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 6 minutes.

4. Lightly coat a large bowl with oil, then transfer the dough into it, turning the dough once to completely coat with oil. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and set in a warm place until the dough doubles in size, about 1 hour.

5. Transfer the dough to a dry work surface and punch down lightly to remove air that has gathered inside the dough. Reshape the dough into a ball, return to the oiled bowl, cover with towel and set back in the warm place until the dough doubles in size again, about another hour.

6. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray lightly with cooking spray.

7. Divide the dough in two pieces. Divide each piece of dough into three equal parts. Roll each portion into 12" strands about 1" wide.

8. Gather three strands together at one end and pinch together, then braid the dough, by alternately crossing one strand over the other until you reach the other end. Pinch the other ends together so the braid does not unravel. Repeat process with second half of dough.

9. Carefully transfer the braided loaves to the prepared baking sheet.

10. In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining egg and the milk or water. Using a pastry brush, coat the surface of each loaf with the egg mixture. Reserve the excess mixture in the refrigerator.

11. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and place in a warm place for another hour or until the loaves have doubled in volume. Preheat oven to 350°.

12. Lightly brush loaves with the remaining egg mixture. Bake until the loaves have risen and are deep golden brown, about 45-50 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool before slicing.

Chocolate Eclair Cake & The Wonders of Photoshop

I made this AWESOME Chocolate Eclair Cake for our family's Labor Day picnic last weekend. Many thanks to Miss Beth for passing on the recipe. It's so easy and so yummy, I highly reco that you stock up on the ingredients on your next shopping trip. It got rave reviews from all and produced great sadness once it was all gone.

You can find the recipe on allrecipes.com. I healthified my version a little by using low-fat cinnamon graham crackers, lite cool whip, Simply Smart's Fat-Free milk, and reduced sugar chocolate frosting. Beth's suggestion was key for spreading the frosting on top: Put the can of frosting in the microwave for about 40 seconds. That way, you can easily pour it out onto the cake. Just don't forget to remove all of the aluminum foil seal before nuking.


With the leftover pieces, I decided to play around with my shooting and styling skills. I don't have many good shots of cakes as it's sometimes hard to make a good slice, and extricate it from it's dish without making a mess. Remembering a tip from the food stylists I've worked with over the years, I carefully sliced a small square of cake, placed it on its dish and popped it in the freezer for about 30 minutes.

After removing it from the freezer, I took a thin, sharp knife and carefully trimmed each side of the cake to create smooth, clean edges. Once I could clearly see the cross section of the cake, I realized that I didn't exactly split the pudding batter evenly between the first and second layer. No problem! I may be an amateur cook, a budding photographer and student of styling...


...but I definitely know my way around Photoshop. Ta-da! Perfectly proportioned cake! Much better.

Test Kitchen #26: Grand Marnier Souffle

When the instructions in this week's souffle recipe read, "Serve immediately," Dad followed that to the letter, spooning the fluffy finished product out of the dish so fast, that I wasn't able to catch any still shots before cutting into it. But I got video!

Grand Marnier Souffle
from America's Test Kitchen

Serves 6-8
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons sifted cocoa powder
5 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup whole milk
5 large eggs, separating out and reserving the egg whites.
1 tablespoon grated orange zest from 1 medium orange
3 tablespoons Grand Marnier
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

1. Adjust rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 1 1/2-quart porcelain soufflé dish with 1 tablespoon butter, making sure to coat all interior surfaces. Stir together 1/4 cup sugar and cocoa in small bowl; pour into buttered soufflé dish and shake to coat bottom and sides with thick, even coating. Tap out excess and set dish aside.

2. Whisk flour, 1/4 cup sugar, and salt in small, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Gradually whisk in milk, whisking until smooth and no lumps remain. Bring mixture to boil over high heat, whisking constantly until thickened and mixture pulls away from sides of pan, about 3 minutes. Scrape mixture into medium bowl; whisk in remaining 2 tablespoons butter until combined. Whisk in yolks until incorporated; stir in orange zest and Grand Marnier.

3. In bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat egg whites, cream of tartar, and 1 teaspoon sugar at medium-low speed until combined, about 10 seconds. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until frothy and no longer translucent, about 2 minutes. With mixer running, sprinkle in half remaining sugar; continue beating until whites form soft billowy peaks, about 30 seconds. With mixer still running, sprinkle in remaining sugar and beat until just combined, about 10 seconds. The whites should form soft peaks when beater is lifted, but should not appear Styrofoam-like or dry.

4. Using rubber spatula, immediately stir one-quarter of beaten whites into soufflé base to lighten until almost no white streaks remain. Scrape remaining whites into base and fold in whites with balloon whisk until mixture is just combined, gently flicking whisk after scraping up side of bowl to free any mixture caught in whisk. Gently pour mixture into prepared dish and run index finger through mixture, tracing circumference about 1/2-inch from side of dish, to help soufflé rise properly. Bake until surface of soufflé is deep brown, center jiggles slightly when shaken, and soufflé has risen 2 to 2 1/2-inches above rim of dish, 20 to 25 minutes. Serve immediately.


This one was fun and surprisingly easy. The anxiety behind souffle making is that one cannot make any noise while it's baking for fear it will collapse in on itself, deflating like a withering balloon. But this America's Test Kitchen recipe has a secret weapon. The cream of tartar added supplies a small amount of strength to the batter. After watching this episode, Dad learned that we only needed to be as quiet as we could for the first 15 minutes of the baking time. After that, we could feel free to clatter and clang about the kitchen as much as we wanted with little fear of souffle destruction.

Since it was just the two of us, we cut the recipe ingredients in half, but I doubt the original intended 6-8 servings would really serve that many people. Cutting the recipe was just enough for me and Dad. The flavor is very light and the slightly browned crust holds the orange flavor of the zest and liquor very well. It's just enough sweetness. It's consistency reminded me that of bread pudding or a mushier quiche.

The preparation is definitely the hardest part. Measurements and consistency of liquid ingredients have to be just right for everything to work out. Although I don't doubt this would be a crowd pleaser, it's probably too stressful to prepare fresh while your guests are waiting in the other room patiently with their coffee. Dad found another recipe for Chocolate Souffles from ATK that we'll have to try. That batter can be made ahead of time and stored in the freezer until ready to bake and serve.

Test Kitchen #25: Garlic & White Wine Sauce

A couple of weeks ago, on one of those nights where neither of us felt like cooking, Matt and I went down the street to one of our favorite neighborhood Italian joints, Vazzy's. As soon as we walked in the door, we were greeted by the most wonderful garlic aroma wafting through the entire dining room. While I usually have a hard time deciding what I want to eat, I knew right away that I wanted something with garlic sauce.

When dining out, I try to order things that I wouldn't often cook myself. I usually steer away from pasta because I can make it at home anytime and most restaurants tend to go a little overboard on the serving sizes. It's still hard to believe that there are chefs out there thinking that it's okay for the average human to eat what seems like an entire box of pasta in one sitting. And that's before you add the heavy Alfredo cream sauce. I'm sure we're catering to the senior citizen crowd, who is so psyched over their $10.95 meal that will feed them dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow! ("It's like you're paying for two meals in one. It's a great deal!) I'm talking to you, Log Cabin. If I want volume and savings, I'll go to Costco. Thanks.

(Where did that rant come from?)

Anyway, on this particular night, I veered from my no pasta rule in order to find something with garlic sauce on it when my eyes landed happily upon Vazzy's Pasta Mali. My choice of chicken or sausage over penne with sun-dried peppers and a garlic white wine sauce. I opted for the sausage and skipped the peppers. This has easily become my new favorite pasta. The smell of the garlic is only outdone by it's amazing flavor. The sauce was creamy but translucent. Thick enough to coat the pasta, and not so thin that it would run directly through the food. I very nearly ate the whole thing which made me grateful that the portion looked more like only half a box then a whole one.

I reasoned it was okay to break my no pasta rule because I don't know how to make garlic white wine sauce and would probably never make it on the spur of the moment. Suddenly, the perfect candidate for the following week's test kitchen had presented itself. Dad and I have always enjoyed the trials and errors of cooking that I was pretty sure, we could figure this one out.

After a few quick searches, we started out with this basic recipe, knowing that we could leave room for tweaking. The recipe was pretty easy, but what it lacked a thicker consistency that would better coat pasta. Made as is, this mixture would probably run straight through anything you poured it on, leaving a pool of liquid on the bottom and all the good stuff floating on the top.

Garlic & White Wine Sauce
(Served with broccoli over medium shells)
Made four large servings

Ingredients:
12 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1 can (14 oz) of low sodium chicken broth
6 oz. of dry white wine or cooking wine
8 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 stick of butter
2 tablespoons of flour
16 oz. box of medium shells
1 (12oz) package of frozen broccoli
Salt & pepper to season
Splash of lemon juice
Sprinkle of parsley

Steps:
1. Heat the saucepan on medium low, and coat the bottom with the oil.

2. Add garlic cloves and cook until softened. Do not let the garlic brown or burn.

3. Add the white wine and chicken stock to the pan. Cover sauce pan and let simmer for ten minutes.

4. At the same time, prepare shells, or desired pasta, per package directions. When cooked, drain and set aside. In the same pot, add the broccoli, along with a little butter, salt and pepper and cook on medium high, until warmed through. Add the pasta back into the pot. Toss all to combine and reduce heat to low to keep everything warm.

5. When the sauce is done simmering, remove from pan to a bowl or measuring pitcher. In the same sauce pan, create a roux by combining 1/2 a stick of butter with the flour. Stir until a paste forms. Slowly add the sauce liquid back into the pan, stirring as you add to avoid any lumps from forming.

6. Bring all to a boil. Keep stirring until sauce thickens. Turn off heat but leave pan on warm burner. Add pasta and broccoli to the sauce pan and combine all so everything is evenly coated with sauce. Splash with lemon juice and sprinkle with dried parsley or with 1/2 cup of fresh chopped parsley.

The Verdict:
For our first go around, I thought it was pretty good. It's amazing! You'd think that the intensity of 12 cloves of garlic would surely knock you out, but the flavor was in fact fairly mild. I think the trick with learning to make sauces is realizing that so much of the liquid reduces while it's cooking that you never get as much as you started out with. Our sauce did a nice job of thinly coating all the pasta and broccoli, but I would have definitely have preferred more sauce or less pasta.

Sure it was no Vazzy's, but we are still learning and it's always good to have a benchmark to work towards.

Test Kitchen #24: Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

This week we had a special guest in the test kitchen. Just in time for my birthday, I got a surprise visit from my sister, Christine, who flew all the way from Phoenix for my big 3-2! When Matt took me out for dinner last Friday night, my parents were there waiting for us in the restaurant with my sister carefully hidden in the corner of the table.

Even though my family kept this plan secret from me for over six months, there was something inside my head that evening telling me that she might be there. Maybe it was when I received her birthday card a few days earlier with the note, "Hope to see you all soon!", that I began to wonder. Or maybe I was just hoping. Either way, it was a great surprise and when I found out that she was staying with us until the following Wednesday, I got even more excited. "Oh yeah, you can cook with us on Tuesday!"

So it was only fitting that this week's recipe be supplied by Christine. That first night, at the birthday dinner, we ordered a dish of hummus and pita to share with the table. The taste was just okay and the color seemed a little gray. Christine offered that we should try her Roasted Red Pepper Hummus recipe. The flavor and color would be much better and so easy to make.

Tuesday afternoon I hopped between three different grocery stores to find one of the key ingredients: sesame tahini sauce. After an exhausted search of the ethic foods aisles, I was hoping that maybe we could do without it. Dad and I were used to "winging it" and I was sure that there would be a way to make up for the missing ingredient. But Christine insisted that it was vital to the mix, so I pressed on.

The Nature's Way food store finally yielded the score. If you've never had to purchase tahini sauce before, immediately find any natural foods store and look in the peanut butter aisle. The sauce has a similar texture and consistency of peanut butter, only it's made with sesame seeds and is a little runnier. Make sure you stir it really well before adding it in with the other ingredients.

Here's a picture of the one I found so you know what you're looking for. It's also not cheap. It was $6.69 for this little can, but Christine says it lasts for a while in the fridge. No more store bought hummus for us!

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

• I can (16oz -19oz) of chickpeas, drained
  
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 tablespoon of sesame tahini
• 1 ½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 ½ tablespoona olive oil
• 3/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ tablespoon water

1. Wash and dry red bell pepper. Chop into ½ inch strips.

2. Spread in a single layer on baking sheet or shallow baking pan. Drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat.

3. Place in a 350° oven for 15-20 minutes or until soft.

4. In a blender or food processor, blend the chickpeas. Add red bell pepper, olive oil, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, water, and salt until the ingredients form a creamy, paste-like consistency. Red pepper should be ground up enough so you can see small red bits in the mixture and everything turns light orange in color.

5. Taste and add more seasoning or tahini until it's to your liking.

6. Serve immediately or best when covered and refrigerated for at least 30 minutes.

Verdict:
The best part about this recipe, aside from the taste, is how fast and easy it is to make. When you realize that the recipe minus the peppers is your basic plain hummus, the possibilities become endless with the flavors you can add. Instead of red pepper, you can use sun-dried tomatoes, spinach or even fresh basil to make a pesto flavored hummus.

For dipping purposes, I bought some Naan bread at the bakery. I sprayed it with a little butter and dusted some garlic powder over the top. While the hummus was chilling, we lightly toasted the Naan on the grill, just long enough to warm it up and get a few grill marks. After it was done, I cut it up into small strips for dipping. The hummus served as an appetizer for the steak dinner we were having for Christine's last night with us. We made a double batch so unfortunately the Naan didn't last for as much hummus as we made. The flavor was bold and the texture creamy; not too pasty like some store brands can be.

Matt and I had no problem taking home the leftovers and it came in handy the next day when Bob joined us for the USA v. Mexico soccer game. Combined with some toasted wheat crackers, the hummus was a big hit and made for a great game time snack.

Test Kitchen #23: Grilled Chicken Burrito with Corn Salsa

A gorgeous afternoon meant grilling in the backyard on this Test Kitchen Tuesday. This week's brainstorm came from a corn salsa recipe that Mom had clipped from the grocery store circular. After a few minutes planning, we had our vision and headed to the IGA for some extras.

I've had this easy chicken burrito wrap in my mental recipe Rolodex for years. I've made it with fresh chicken or pre-cooked short cuts. I've grilled the outside of the burrito on my trusty grill pan or zap fried it in the microwave. I've used fresh salsa and the ole jar standby. None of these methods are wrong. It might just be what suits your needs at a particular moment in time. But if you can spare the time, using fresh marinated, grilled chicken with homemade salsa and cheese wrapped inside a toasty tortilla is definitely the way to go.

This falls under the "barely needs a recipe" category because you can tweak it so many different ways to suit your taste. The basics are 2 large chicken breasts (about D-cups, as Dad would say), shredded Mexican cheese, 4 large burrito size wraps, and salsa. Place some sliced grilled chicken, a few tablespoons of salsa and a small handful of cheese in a wrap, roll it up and grill until warmed through.

If you really need some steps, do this:

Before making salsa, place all the chicken in a large ziploc bag and add 1/2 bottle of your favorite marinade. We used a Chipotle Lime flavor from Lawry's. Refrigerate until ready to grill.

Fresh Corn Salsa:
1 1/2 cups of fresh or frozen corn, lightly cooked
1 small green or red bell pepper, diced
1 small tomato, diced
1-2 scallions, diced
1 tablespoon fresh chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of sugar
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
pinch of dried parsley

1. Combine all salsa ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Cover and refrigerate until ready to assemble wraps.

2. Grill chicken until well cooked through and slice into thin pieces.

3. On a large burrito-size tortilla, place 2-4 tablespoons of the salsa, about 1/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese and top all with about 1 cup of sliced chicken.

4. Wrap burrito up, making sure to tuck in all the sides so nothing sneaks out. Place back on the grill, seam side down. Turn a couple of times until each side of the burrito is lightly browned and has some nice grills marks. You really only need them on there just long enough to melt the cheese inside and make the outside a little crispy.


The Verdict:

Direct quote from Mom, "Excellent."

Grilling really does make everything better. It's probably second only to melted cheese. Half the pleasure of eating this wrap is just realizing how easy it is to make. Sometimes it's the simplest recipes that are the tastiest. (Maybe stress makes food taste differently. Somebody should do a study on that.) This afternoon's lunch couldn't have been more relaxing. Mom, Dad and I dined at the picnic table while the breeze gently round across the lawn, perfectly pleased with ourselves.

Here's my only tip. You don't have to marinate the chicken. Many times I just season it with a little fajita seasoning and olive oil. If you do choose use a marinade, make sure the flavor doesn't compete with the flavor of the salsa.

When we first made the corn salsa, the cayenne gave it a little too much kick and we were worried that the combination of the bold chipotle flavor in the marinade was going to be overkill. With a few revisions, we mellowed out the salsa and after the chicken was cooked, the marinade turned out not to be as strong as we thought it would.

In short, my advice would be to taste both the chicken and the salsa before putting both in the wrap. That way, if one is way more overpowering than the other, you might want to consider grilling the wraps with just chicken and cheese inside and leaving the salsa as a topping.

Test Kitchen #22: Ricotta Gnocchi

I wish I could come up with a loftier explanation why I decided to choose gnocchi as our next text kitchen. It is in no way a summer type food. It is not light and refreshing or made with healthy ingredients like fruits or vegetables. It is more so, a comfort food. One that should probably be reserved for a cozy fall or winter afternoon. This summer, however, hasn't been real light and refreshing itself with our many dreary days, so maybe it was as good a time as any. Perhaps the best reason is that I've never made homemade pasta before, it was simple and fun. Done and done.

Even more puzzling than why I chose to make gnocchi, was that out of all the traditional potato-based recipes and being a HUGE fan of the potato myself, I chose the one recipe that had absolutely no potato in it at all. (For those non-believers, the potato really is an awesome vegetable. Fried, baked, mashed, tots, hashed; it's so versatile. And best of all: potato as soft pillows of pasta-like fluff surrounded in your favorite sauce. There. I've said my peace.) This Ricotta Gnocchi is made primarily with ricotta cheese, grated Parmesan and flour. The original recipe came from the ever popular allrecipes.com. The steps below have only a few adjustments, the biggest being that we ignored the sauce recipe included and just made a giant pot of Dad's homemade sauce.

Ingredients:
1 (8 ounce) container of part skim ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup all-purpose flour, or as needed
handful of shredded mozzarella

Steps:
1. Stir together the ricotta cheese, eggs, Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and garlic powder in a large bowl until evenly combined. Mix in 1 cup of flour. Add additional flour if needed to form a soft dough.

2. Divide the dough into 3 or 4 pieces, and roll into 1/2-inch-thick ropes on a floured surface. Cut each rope into 1-inch pieces, and place on a lightly floured baking sheet. Try pressing each piece with the bottom of a fork to give a ridged texture. Place in the refrigerator until ready to use.


3. When your sauce is ready, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil over high heat. Boil the gnocchi until they float to the surface, 1 to 2 minutes, then drain.

4. To assemble the dish, transfer warm gnocchi into a large serving bowl. Ladel some sauce liberally over the top. Stir in the mozzarella cheese.

Verdict:
The dough was very wet and needed more flour to become kneadable, which could have been due to the high amount of humidity in the air on this particular day. Perhaps just another reason why it didn't quite make sense for me to choose this recipe on a hot and sweaty afternoon.

The taste and texture was quite good. Not quite as melt-in-your-mouth as others I've had, but these were also not made with potato, so maybe that's how it should be. The dough was a little sticky and stuck to the edges of my teeth when I took a bite. I also noticed that for the amount of cheese in the recipe, the flavors didn't come through as I expected. If I were to try this one again, I would probably dial up some seasonings and definitely make it on a less humid day. This probably would also be a good dough to try our luck with some homemade ravioli.

While I was still proud of myself for making a pasta from scratch, my sense is that the secret to any great pasta, is mastering the art of the dough. Later that day, Dad emailed that they had whole wheat flour in the cabinet and that we could have tried the recipe using that instead for a healthier option. There will be other afternoons. Let's save it for later on this winter.

P.S. Since Dad was overseeing the production of his excellent sauce, I was left to make the dough and roll little gnocchis on my own. With my hands completely covered in dough, there would be no way for me to prevent Dad from snagging up the camera and taking some video of me for a change. I owe him this one of, I'm sure, many to come. Further witness the evidence of that humid day in my crazy frizzy hair.

Test Kitchen #21: Double Chocolate Cookies

(Sniff....Sniff) This week, since I had an on-site freelance assignment, the test kitchen pressed on without me. Dad and I usually take turns each week choosing the recipes and this week was his turn. So on Sunday, when the four of us were out for lunch and a movie, I informed him that he now an extra week to come up with his idea. In an attempt to sneak past me, he reasoned that since we were skipping his week, next week was really my turn again.

Nice try, daddio.

So when I joked that he should cook without me, take pictures and do a write-up for the blog on his own, I didn't really expect him to call me on it. But there it was, in my inbox by 11:35 this morning; a Double Chocolate Cookie article, complete with recipe and pictures.

Jealous, that they were baking while I was working, I replied to his email,"Sniff...Snifff...You soldiered on without me. Are there any left for me to 'test'?" Mom wanted to know if the sniffs in my email was tears or just me trying to smell the cookies all the way from work. Maybe a little bit of both.

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Since Kathy was busy this week, Mom decided to take over the test kitchen. Her recipe was for double chocolate cookies. She decided to cut down the amount of chocolate chips in half. They are really good. The recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Double Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients:
About 6 oz. of semi-sweet
chocolate chips divided into two portions

1 -1/2 cups sugar

1 cup butter softened

2 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1) Heat oven to 375° (350 degrees with the pans we use)

2) Melt 1/2 the chocolate chips in the microwave for 30 seconds or until melted. Stir and set aside to cool.

3) Beat sugar, butter, and vanilla on medium speed until creamy. Beat in eggs until light and fluffy. Mix in cooled melted chocolate.

4) Mix in flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt on low speed until well blended. Stir in remaining chocolate chips. Using the cookie scooper, place batter on two un-greased cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. (If you don't have a cookie scooper, shape dough into 1-1/4 inch balls.)

5) Bake 9-11 minutes or until set and just beginning to crack. (9 minutes worked good here for Mom). Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes and then transfer to wire rack to cool.

Of course I tried them before they got cool. You've just got to check these things out. The smell was drifting all through the house. Mom says I owe her one for getting me off the hook this week. (Like I was ever going to get off the hook.)

- Dad, From the Test Kitchen

Test Kitchen #20: Ice Cream Sandwiches

Inspired by the shortbread crust in last week's fruit tart and still having ice cream on the brain, I got the idea to make ice cream sandwiches. By rolling out the dough and cutting circular cookie shapes, I hoped to create cookies that would be firm enough to hold the weight of the ice cream.

We used the same steps and ingredients for the crust from the White Chocolate Fruit Tart, but doubled the recipe to get more cookies. Using a circular cookie cutter that was about 3.75" in diameter yielded about 14 cookies to make 7 total sandwiches.


Never forgetting the photo op, we used a couple of quick tricks to ensure a pretty cookie. Dad dug out an antique metal tin that was filled with Grandpa's cookie cutters. The one we chose to use had a scalloped edge around the outside. Once we cut the cookie dough out, I used a small juice glass, with a diameter about a half inch less than the cutter and lightly pressed it into the dough to make an inner border. For the big finish, Dad pulled out a steak brand in the shape of an "H" that a friend had given him as a gift and we stamped the center of each cookie.


Ingredients & Steps:

• 1 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 gallon of half fat, Neapolitan Ice Cream
  (Chocolate, Vanilla and Strawberry in the same box.)

(Variation to consider: Swap out the confectioner's sugar for granulated Splenda)

1. In a small mixing bowl, cream butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually add flour; mix well.

2. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3. Roll to about 1/8" thick. Cut dough with cookie cutters.

4. Combine scraps of dough and re-roll to make more cookies. Place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

5. Bake at 300° between 28-35 minutes. Transfer to cooling racks and then refrigerate between 45-60 minutes or until firm.

6. When cookies are ready, squeeze the entire gallon of ice cream onto a cutting board. Cut half inch thick slices of ice cream, using the circular cookie cutter to create a round chunk to go in between two cookies.

7. Immediately wrap with plastic wrap or wax paper and place back in the freezer.


The Verdict:
This week's experiment was a clear winner of the Pretty Award. The cookies were good, but could have been a little thinner. There's definitely a magic formula to finding just the right cookies for an ice cream sandwich. Either the cookie is too stiff and snaps in half when you bite into it shooting the ice cream out the other side or the cookie is too soft and you're left with doughy finger prints. (I hate that!)

Unfortunately in this case, the cookie got really hard in the freezer and the ice cream didn't get hard enough. (This might have been because I used the Churn Style ice cream which tends to be a little more creamy.) I left four sandwiches at Mom and Dad's house, who were having the Cohen's over for dinner. I gave two to my friend, Beth, to share with her husband, Joe and Matt and I shared the last one. Matt liked the cookie but, we had to ultimately take the sandwich apart and just eat it open-faced with the ice cream spread on top. I liked using a shortbread style cookie for the sandwich as opposed to the traditional chocolate cookie. We'll just have to work on tweaking the consistency of the dough next time.